Serving Langlade, Lincoln, Marathon, Menominee,  Oneida, Portage, Taylor, 
Vilas, Waupaca, and Wood counties. 

 

Selected headlines from the January 9th edition of THE BUSINESS NEWS

A labor of love
Merwin hopes new snowmobile track will help make sport safer


By Paul Schroeder
pschroeder@thebusinessnewsonline.com

It’s not often someone goes into business knowing they’ll likely never make a dime. But that’s fine with Wausau’s Ralph Merwin. As owner of 525 Sports LLC, he hopes to make the sport of snowmobile racing as safe as possible – if only for one weekend a year.
 “We started actual work on this the first week of July,” said Merwin, 64, looking over 40 acres of the family farm west of Wausau in the town of Rib Mountain. “This is like a two- to three-year project and we’ve gotten about 12 months done in a six-month period.”
The “project” is a third-mile oval race track (half-mile on the outside) and site of the Wausau 525 race scheduled for Jan. 27-29 (www.wausau525.com).
Merwin knows a bit about construction, having built many commercial buildings in the region the past 40 years as the former owner of Consolidated Building Service. However, the snowmobile track is more than another “project” for him. It’s a labor of love.
Still, some might find it strange that Merwin pours nearly every waking hour into promoting a sport that took the life of his son.
 “For me to do what I’m doing … I question it a lot myself,” Merwin said. “After all, Philip was killed in a race, and now I’m doing a race.”
Philip, or “Flip” as he was affectionately known, secretly competed for two years before telling his parents. “He didn’t want us to know because of the dangers involved,” Merwin said. “Then once he really got into it, we helped sponsor him.”  More

 

A new year — a new beginning
Former Weston administrator makes fresh start as consultant

By Ed Wodalski
ewodalski@thebusinessnewsonline.com

Dean Zuleger feels refreshed, energized and re-invigorated. His head has stopped throbbing; the blood pressure is down, and he’s lost 20 pounds.
Since unexpectedly resigning as administrator for the Village of Weston in October, he has found new life as strategist and problem solver for Policy Dynamic Consulting LLC, a home-based company he launched in mid-December.
While some might question walking away after 11 years from a $123,000-a-year-job with full benefits and retirement plan, Zuleger, 50, felt he didn’t have a choice.
“When I originally came to work for the village under Vilas (Machmueller, village board chairman, now deceased) I kind of told them I would give them five years. And that turned into eight. Then when we lost him, I committed with Fred Schuster (current board chairman) that I would work a couple years with him. But the intent was not to spend the rest of my career in government; it was to take some of the business techniques that I learned along the way and apply them to government.”
Still, resigning as administrator wasn’t easy, Zuleger said.  More

People who make a difference
Walmart general manager responds to Rhinelander’s needs

By Betty Wall
bwall@thebusinessnewsonline.com

On call and ready to serve, that’s how Brent Sundby, general manager at Walmart in Rhinelander, lives each day, and he feels great about it. A volunteer firefighter with the Newbold Fire Department, Sundby is a graduate of the Wisconsin Firefighter Certification Program through Nicolet Area Technical College in Rhinelander.
“The Fire Department has most definitely been the most rewarding organization that I have been involved with,” he said. “It is just a great group of people, and the things that you do make a real and immediate difference for the people you come in contact with. The difference that you make there has the potential to be life-changing and life-saving.”
In addition to his firefighting duties, Sundby served seven years on the board of directors for the Rhinelander Chamber of Commerce, completing two consecutive terms.
He organizes activities for the Oneida County Fair’s Family Land and coordinated a fire department water fight for fairgoers. “It was really fun,” Sundby said. “We really had a good time.”  More


Growth Strategies
Weston’s RightAngle Ergonomic Products shows 20 percent gain

By Paul Schroeder
pschroeder@thebusinessnewsonline.com

Bill Knighton has a knack for observation. Back in 1983, he noticed a growing trend among workers at computer keyboards — a pain in the wrist.
“Carpal Tunnel Syndrome was virtually unknown at the time,” he said. “Yet, companies were getting an increasing number of worker’s comp claims.” Knighton’s observation led to the beginning of RightAngle Ergonomic Products and a top-selling wrist support.
 “We had a narrowly focused niche, selling products to prevent glare on computer screens,” he said. “But we saw an opportunity to help companies reduce wrist-strain claims by developing a product that provided support for the wrist. We weren’t the first company to come up with the idea, but we certainly were — and still are — leaders in the industry.”
Now located in the Weston Industrial Park, Knighton and his father, Warren, started work in the garage. The company incorporated in 1985 and expanded to a manufacturing plant in Wausau, purchasing the facility in 1990. In 1996, Knighton bought out his father and committed to aggressively pursue the ergonomics market.  More

The List
Area's largest property and casualty insurers  More


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